Archive for month: April, 2016

We are honoured to welcome Dr. Anne Pickering as our Botanist in Residence.

Anne is one of the Friends of the Garden, and her extensive skills are very much in tune with its ethos – a researcher, artist, tutor, hen house builder and motorcycle mechanic, we can call on Anne in almost any eventuality!

Anne studied Botany at Manchester, Horticulture at Bath and went on to present her Ph.D thesis on ‘The value of Botanic Gardens in Conservation and Recreation’ at The University of Newcastle. Anne was Director of Moor Bank Botanic garden for 20 years. During that time, she was a member of the Medicinal Plant Research Group, undertaking collaborative research on the use of plants to improve memory. A number of her peer-reviewed articles on the antioxidant properties of plants has been published.

Anne’s botanical researches have taken her to Nigeria, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Pemba, Jamaica and Zambia, where she has served in a professional capacity for a variety of organisations, from governmental to the third sector. Closer to home, Anne enjoyed her time as research botanist for the Distillers Company based in Clackmannanshire.

In her personal life, Anne is an accomplished artist, illustrator and photographer, having exhibited in a number of galleries and holding three successful exhibitions of landscape art and plant watercolours. Her website can be visited here http://www.annepickeringart.co.uk